Donald Parham leaves Chargers training camp with apparent injury
By Jason Reed
LA Chargers training camp has been very promising thus far with several players stepping up and turning heads on what was already a stacked roster. For the most part, the Bolts have avoided a big injury bug with some minor injuries thus far.
However, on Saturday we witnessed perhaps the most significant in-practice injury to hit the Bolts thus far during training camp. During red-zone drills on offense, tight end Donald Parham appeared to injure something in his lower half as he came up hobbling.
Parham was taken to the sideline and was seen leaving practice with trainers under his own power. That is a promising sign for the Chargers' six-eight tight end.
Parham was seen walking after practice with the back of his upper left leg wrapped. Based on the location of the wrap, and the footage, it seems likely that Parham tweaked his hamstring on the play. Hopefully it is just a small tweak that does not result in extra missed time.
The Chargers' tight end room desperately needs Donald Parham.
The Chargers have a trio of tight ends who complement each other well and together, make up a pretty good tight end room that is definitely getting overlooked in the grand scheme of things. However, the second that one of those pieces are missing the room does fall apart a bit.
Gerald Everett is still the team's TE1 that is going to fill into Jared Cook's role from last season and he should be far better than Cook was last season. However, Parham was expected to be one of the team's biggest red-zone threats at the tight end position. Everett obviously can still produce in the red zone but doesn't present the same matchup advantages that Parham does.
Tre' McKitty is the third tight end on the roster and is already a really efficient blocker for the position. However, he has not proven himself as a passing target, and without Parham, the Chargers would really only have Everett to fully rely on.
There are other depth options such as Hunter Kampmoyer and Sage Surratt. Kampmoyer has been filling in on special teams for the injured Drue Tranquill, so he has a better chance of making the roster than Surratt.
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Regardless, it is doubtful that this injury carries over into impactful football games for the Chargers... at least that is what we can hope for.